On May 4th, hundreds of people gathered at our headquarters to enjoy some music, eat egg sandwiches (something we didn’t know we loved until we had them), shop from vendors, and most importantly, vote for their favorite bus stop design.
In January, we announced the prompt for our FD19, our annual design challenge: create a bus stop that not only invokes joy but also addresses particulate matter pollution. We learned from Downwinders at Risk that if you put a barrier between a person waiting for a bus and the road, you can reduce PM pollution by 30-40 percent.
One other element of the competition: a portion of the stop had to be digitally fabricated.
We gave each participating team $250, four hours of cut time on our CNC router, and allowed them to fundraise up to $750 more for extra equipment.
The teams delivered, under-budget and on-time.
They spent Saturday morning setting up, and as the sun began to set on the nine bus stops, our judges visited each one to evaluate the design and concepts. During that time, the crowd voted for their favorite as well.
Both winners were close, but in the end: Judges’ Choice (and $1,000) went to Motion Studio at Fitzpatrick Architects. The People’s Choice went to Studio Outside.
A huge thank you to everyone who made this happen, including our sponsors: Nunzio Marc DeSantis Architects, Downwinders at Risk, OmniPlan, Schenkel Properties, 3Headed Monster, and Oddfellows.
The nine participating teams included:
